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Money Supermarket Road Trip

Monday, August 05, 2013

Once again Money Supermarket have challenged a selection of bloggers on another campaign to show you all how far you can stretch your money. This challenge is to go on a road trip somewhere relatively local to where we live, with a fuel budget of £50. The aim of this challenge is to show everyone that there are fantastic days out and road trips to be had in the UK right on our own doorsteps.

We thought really hard about where we would go on our road trip and came up with the idea of taking the kiddies to the seaside. We haven't been to the beach since Gracie was a baby so thought we would keep it as a surprise until we got there! We had planned to go to Weston Super-mare but this morning my weather app told me Weston and the surrounding areas had miserable weather! a quick google search helped me to find a sunny alternative and off we went on our road trip to Southend on Sea.

Fortunately it worked out well Gracie slept a lot of the way and so did Zach so we got a nice peaceful drive. We got to see the beautiful scenery of the British countryside which I absolutely love and we got to have adult conversation with no distractions. Considering it has been a sunny Sunday in the south east we didn't hit any traffic and arrived in Southend at 2.30pm. Just before the beach was in view Andy picked Gracie up and I told her we were at the seaside and she was so happy then as soon as we turned the corner and saw the view, I will never forget the excitement on her face! We had a lovely day. We spent a few hours on the beach building sandcastles and had a quick paddle in the sea, it was Zach's first time at the seaside and he loved the water but Gracie wasn't impressed at the pebbled beach it hurt her feet so we had a picnic and hit the arcades and amusements for a few hours. Before we knew it it was 8pm and we still had a 2hr15min drive home so we headed off.

Our road trip isn't over yet I'm actually blogging whilst in the car (not driving I must add)I'm currently writing whilst listening to Gracie's renditions of the latest hits on the radio whilst Zach is asleep again. We've had such a fun road trip and we put our £50 petrol in and haven't had to refill to come home and just had to buy ice cream, a bucket and spade and lots of 2ps in the arcade I would say we've spent an extra £15-£20 altogether and none of that was on necessities it was just some extra treats to make the day more special.

We've had a fun road trip. Not only has it been a cheap day out but we have gained memories we will cherish forever. If you live close to the seaside you can have a fun day out similar to ours for even less. There are so many free or cheap places to visit in the UK whether it be beaches, parks, historical sites there is something for everyone!

This trip has certainly shown us we have a nice family day out without spending a fortune and that with a full tank of petrol we can go wherever we want.